Recently, the display performances of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) have been improved to the point that more and more manufacturers adopt LCD panels as TV monitors, for example. As a result of those researches and developments, the viewing angle characteristic of LCDs has been improved to a certain degree but not satisfactorily in some respects. Among other things, there is still a high demand for improvement of the viewing angle characteristic of an LCD using a vertical alignment liquid crystal layer (which is sometimes called a “VA mode LCD”).
A VA mode LCD, which is currently used for a TV set with a big screen, for example, adopts a multi-domain structure, in which multiple liquid crystal domains are formed in a single pixel region, to improve the viewing angle characteristic of the display contrast ratio. An MVA mode is often adopted as a method of forming such a multi-domain structure. Specifically, according to the MVA mode, an alignment control structure is provided on one of the two substrates, which face each other with a vertical alignment liquid crystal layer interposed between them, so as to contact with the liquid crystal layer, thereby forming multiple domains with mutually different alignment directions (i.e., tilt directions), the number of which is typically four. As the alignment control structure, a slit (as an opening) or a rib (as a projection structure) may be provided for an electrode, thereby creating an anchoring force from both sides of the liquid crystal layer.
Also, to further improve the viewing angle characteristic of a VA mode LCD by resolving the problem that such an LCD will exhibit different γ (gamma) characteristics depending on whether the screen is viewed straight or obliquely (i.e., by reducing the degree of viewing angle dependence of the γ characteristic), a multi-pixel technology has been adopted more and more often these days (see Patent Document No. 1, for example). As used herein, the “γ characteristic” means the grayscale dependence of a display luminance and the “multi-pixel technology” refers to forming a single pixel of a number of subpixels that can display mutually different luminances so that a predetermined luminance is displayed in response to a display signal voltage that has been supplied to the pixel. That is to say, the multi-pixel technology is a method for reducing the viewing angle dependence of the γ characteristic of a pixel by synthesizing together those different γ characteristics of the subpixels.    Patent Document No. 1: Pamphlet of PCT International Application Publication No. 2006/038598    Patent Document No. 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-133429    Patent Document No. 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 11-352486